>> Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Our kitchen (if you haven't seen the full tour, check it out) is the first space we want to transform as we learn to love our current home again. It's worked for the three years we've inhabited our home, but as we get older, wiser, and more entrenched . . . we're realizing we need to do something about it.

CHALLENGES

Small space. I'll admit I've suffered smaller kitchens, but as a person who loves to cook and bake, the tight squeeze is more than frustrating. But size isn't going to change. Instead, we need to maximize the space we do have. But how?

Crappy cabinets. We don't have great cabinets -- nor do we have a budget to redo and buy new -- but we could use/organize them better. Of course, we're seeing a theme here. We could also make much better use of the closet/pantry that's nearby. It could become an ultra-cabinet of sorts.

Countertop area. Again, nearly nonexistent. Again with the common complaint: NO SPACE. I've been known to knead bread dough in a lightly floured bowl on the floor (for example, in this rosemary salt loaf recipe). Depressing.

Dishwasher-less. Yeah. We were all talk in the desperate dishwashers post. We never did order our roll-away dishwasher. Stephen's been stuck washing and drying by hand for what seems like an eternity. This situation needs to change. ASAP.

Workflow. Sometimes I laugh when I watch home improvement shows/etc. and hear about this whole "kitchen workflow" idea. The way it works in our house is: We both start chopping/cooking, we turn around and bump into each other, we get involved with something again, and then we bump into each other again. I don't know if it's possible, but some kind of workflow would be nice.

BUDGET

Here's the laughable part. You'd think we have tons of cash around. I mean, we were just looking at buying another house! Not so much, though. We're on limited means (more on this in another post) and would like to complete this project for, well, a whopping $2,000. Or maybe $3,000. It's hard to say.

Unrealistic?Most definitely! Maybe. I try my best to believe that where there's a will, there's a way.

We have handy family in the area and don't have our sights set on anything fancy (we'd even be happy to get cabinets and other materials second-hand). ANYTHING . . . and I genuinely mean ANYTHING . . . would be better than the way it is now. We'll just have to see. It might mean doing the project in phases.

REALITY

We'd love to get some major progress done in this area over the summer months. But who knows. We have made the space work so far, and if we can't find a suitable solution that will work with our current money constraints, we'll likely make it work for several more years. We'll be sure to post updates -- along with some specific photos/ideas/etc. -- in the coming months. Of course, if you have ideas to help us along, we'd love to hear from you!

Where's your problem area? Errr, in your home, I mean to say. Our lonely only bathroom is another sore spot, but what we've learned as homeowners is that we must tackle one thing at a time. Just leave a comment or email us at neverhomemaker [at] gmail [dot] com.